Women’s preview: Chaplen targets return to winning ways!

Reading FC Women host their Bristol City counterparts at Adams Pak on Wednesday, and the Royals’ top scorer Brooke Chaplen sees it as an opportunity to get the points tally ticking again.

The reverse fixture saw Reading run riot in a 5-0 win at the Stoke Gifford Stadium in Bristol, thanks to goals from Rachel Rowe, Jade Moore and Fara Williams.

Prior to Wednesday’s game, we spoke to forward Brooke Chaplen, who has scored seven goals in 15 appearances so far this season.

“Kelly Chambers has has demanded a higher intensity in training and that’s lifted everyone and made us realise we need to push on since our run at Christmas,” said Chaplen, who has seven goals to her name in 15 games.

“I think the couple of bad results has probably given us a bit of a lift to prove what we’re capable of.

“I think we’ve got to be more ruthless in front of goal, we had the chances against Everton and we didn’t take them and sometimes performances don’t win games. We had so much possession and so much of the ball and that game just didn’t go our way, so I think we’ve got to look at ourselves and really start to punish teams when we get in those areas.

“Every game is different, and Bristol City look at that previous game and look at what they can do better and they’ll probably do things differently to last time and we’re playing differently to how we were then.

“I think three points would be massive for us. I know we’ve got a game in hand and we’re probably not where we want to be in the table, but if we win on Wednesday and then win our game in hand we’ll be back where we need to be, pushing the top four.”

You can grab tickets to Wednesday’s game at Adams Park by clicking here.

Royals Women rout City!

Goals from Kirsty Pearce, Brooke Chaplen and a brace from Fara Williams, saw Reading FC Women cruise to victory on a day to remember at Adams Park as they saw off Bristol City 4-0.

It registered the Royals' first victory since the turn of the year, and lifted the team to sixth in the table - just a point behind Birmingham City... next up is a trip to league leaders Chelsea at the weekend!

Starting brightly and with attacking purpose, the Royals tested their luck early on as Jo Potter struck from 25 yards, but saw her effort narrowly deflected over the bar.

Half-an-hour into the game and Reading made the breakthrough.

Potter, again instrumental to the Royals’ attack, swung a dangerous left-footed delivery into the area before Pearce pounced on a loose ball inside the area to net her second of the season.

After going one up, Bristol looked to hit back early and good work from Loren Dykes almost saw Olivia Fergusson bring the score back level. However, committed defending from Potter and Pearce allowed City’s pressure to be extinguished.

Carrying on with their good work in the first-half, the Royals struck twice in the space of three minutes early in the second period through Williams and Chaplen.

The first, an audacious strike into the top corner from range from Williams, and her second, a well-worked team goal with Chaplen concluding the move by converting from a one-on-one situation.

The Robins, though, had not given up hope of getting back into the game, and an unmarked Lauren Hemp almost converted a low-driven cross to the back post. Luckily for goalkeeper Mary Earps, though, the opportunity was narrowly missed.

Continuing to dominate the midfield with her expert passing and creativity, Williams added a second goal to her tally on 70 minutes with a strike very similar to her first - curling it into the far top corner from over 25 yards out.

Not satisfied with a brace, she then came close to completing her hat-trick from two free-kicks.

The first was 30 yards out and the second free-kick was wide on the left side of the penalty box – both of which were defended well by Baggaley.

In the end, though, Reading were happy to stick with four as the referee concluded what was a day to be proud of for the Royals.

Reflecting on what was a superb display, manager Kelly Chambers offered her thoughts after the game and said: "The girls have bounced back tonight and delivered not just three points but also a fantastic performance. We want to play football, and the girls delivered that to perfection tonight.

“We controlled the game from start to finish in and out of possession, it was important from half-time that we pushed on and got more goals."